The Resility biofeedback Muscle Activity Sensor (using surface EMG technology) is capable of playing many different roles in your health journey. Its most basic goal is to teach you about your body and the way it responds to stimuli. One of the more sophisticated roles it can play is to help you exert some control over your bodily processes with a little know-how and practice. It even has the ability to help you keep your stress levels manageable. But can this clever little device play a role in teaching you to breath better? Here we will look at how you can use the Resility Health EMG during breath training to measure and control your breathing without the need for a respiration monitor.
The Importance of Breathing Exercises in Stress Management
Breathing is probably the most foundational thing that our bodies do, and for the most part without us even realizing. Our rate of breathing changes as we exercise and move, as we become upset or excited and unfortunately when we encounter stress. When we experience stress and anxiety, we have a tendency to change our breathing pattern to less effective ones. Perhaps your breathing quickens and becomes less effective. Or we might take a breath full of air into our lungs but not let it all the way out. When we over-breathe, or hold onto our breath, our diaphragm tenses up. This can lead to tension throughout the body.
By knowing how to slow and control your breathing, you can help keep stress and its unwanted side effects at bay. Each time we take a deep breath our bodies respond by releasing chemical messengers in the brain that tell our bodies to relax. By capitalizing on this we can make breathing a big part of our stress management.
What are Breathing Exercises?
Breathing exercises are one of the best ways to manage stress and feel better. Because respiration rate is something you can control with minimal need for biofeedback training, it is one of the best tools we have readily available. By learning how to breath slowly, purposefully and deeply we can manage stress, increase our mental state and clear our minds. There are many different types of breathing exercises but they all have many things in common. First, they train us to slow our breathing. Second, they teach us how to breathe fully. Next, they teach us the proper way to effusively exhale. Finally, they help us learn to pay attention to our breaths and begin to use our breaths as a means to calm us – mind and body.
What Role Can EMG Play in Breathing Exercises
While there is no exact science behind what is right and wrong in terms of breathing – it help to become more aware of your breathing and to set goals. By using your EMG device you can monitor your rate of respiration and set goals for ideal breathing. Ideally your rate of breaths per minute should be around 10-15. If you participate in breath training you will set goals of slower breathing – sometimes as low as 8 to 10.
Your EMG device can become a fabulous tool in the practice of breathing exercises. By sitting in a comfortable position, you can adhere the electrodes to your wrists. Apply the sticky electrode tabs to the underside of one of your wrists so they are comfortable and secure. Once you begin monitoring your device will record the rise and fall of your shoulders as you breath, which equates to your breathing pattern. This will allow you to see how many breaths you are taking each minute and what changes you can make to slow your breathing.
When you pair breathing exercises with the use of your Resility EMG device you will get a clear idea of how successful your training is going. Am I breathing in an ideal range? Are my breaths deep and fluid? Am I continuing to breath throughout the exercise? Your EMG can answer these important questions for you.
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